So much on my mind today that I would have to write a book to share it. Instead, I’m going to share a piece of it and that is my flower garden. Things are blooming and are beautiful! Not everything yet. Some perennials bloom later than others.
From left, top to bottom: Clematis, iris, peonies, rhododendron bush, iris
From left: Japanese painted fern, (not sure of variety of fern), hostas
More will bloom as May goes on!
The rhododendron is native to the area in which I live – the Daniel Boone National Forest in the U.S. The rest are perennials that I have added to my garden. The flower garden has a problem right now. It needs to be heavily fertilized with an organic fertilizer. It is raining so much here, almost daily, that I can’t use my fertilizer right now.
Later today, I am driving to an excellent vegetable market to pick up produce. I try to eat as healthy and natural as I can. That’s tough here in the winter, but spring has come and the vegetables are flooding into the local vegetable markets. Unfortunately, the closest market (25 miles) has not received their order yet. The next closest market is 50 miles away and we are making a trip there today. I try to buy fresh produce at least once a week. It’s a considerable drive regardless of what I’m shopping for.
If we make it to a local market today, I will take pictures of their wonderful offerings to share with all of you.
If there is one thing I’m good at, it is examining my own feelings. I usually do that when I spend time daydreaming. I’m pretty busy with practical stuff most of the time, but I do give myself time to sit and think – and, I guess, feel.
When I was a young girl and even into mid-life, I was good at sharing my feelings with my girlfriends and partner. As I have passed mid-life and am into my last quarter, I have become quieter about my own feelings and I listen more to others. You can learn a lot by listening. I don’t share a lot with anyone now except my partner. There are a couple of very long-term friends and we share our lives with each other, but not always our feelings.
My feelings about many subjects are complex and multilayered perhaps because as you age, you also gain wisdom. I’m surely not making myself an example of a wise sage or something similar, but I am more able to see different viewpoints and the complexities of situations more easily now than in the past. However, these days, I’m more likely to withdraw than discuss feelings, particularly my own.
My feelings about almost everything feel more private to me than ever before. I don’t know why that happens as you age, but it has to me. Maybe it’s because I know that everyone has their own set of problems and mine are no more or no less important than theirs. Maybe it’s because I realize that most people are just not that interested in knowing me, or any other person, that well. Maybe it’s a trust issue because by the time you approach older adulthood, you know who you can trust and who you can’t. Quite possibly, it’s all of the above.
The people who see me a lot know that I’m different now. I’m not as forthcoming or as open. I hope they realize that it is not due to a problem with them. Instead, it’s how to I seem to be approaching this last quarter of my life.
Theme: Aging: Slices of Life Past and Present; Aging Issues and Financial Concerns
Aging and Aerosmith
Welcome to The Write Scribe, my blog, where I will write about issues related to aging, along with slices of life past and present, during the 2024 A to Z Challenge! I look forward to reading your blog posts and enjoying your theme during this Challenge. You can find my A to Z 2024 Challenge posts under the Challenges category at the top of the front page. I invite you to read the posts as you wish and I look forward to your comments.
Since my theme starts with an “A,” I thought starting off with some general comments about aging, and more.
There is only one alternative to aging and we know what that is. Since I’m not done in this world yet, I’ve had to accept this fundamental truth and move on with this aging business. I’ll have to tell you that I’m doing it kicking and screaming and not very graciously.
Younger people ask if, as you get older, you feel any different? I guess my answer is that it depends. If you can stay well, you might answer this question in one way, but if not, your answer might be different. Anyone at any age can become ill. However, it gets more likely as you move into your 60s and 70s. Speaking for myself, I don’t feel much different than I did at 35 except, perhaps, a little (or a lot) wiser. If only the young could have the wisdom of the old! I’ve wished that for my younger self many times.
As you age, you feel like you become invisible in the American society. Other cultures take better care of their elderly. In America, it’s all about youth and the concerns of the young. The elderly, at least in the modern era, are pushed aside as irrelevant and just a bother by many. Some of that changed during the pandemic. Employers discovered that they could depend on older workers and since the pandemic, that opinion has remained, at least to some extent.
Most people who are aging want to stay in their own homes and continue to pursue their own interests without becoming a burden to their children. To me, it’s a shame that parents have to feel like a burden although if aging parents can stay in their own homes, that is often best.
There are a lot of people who are aging who feel lonely. By the time you reach your mid-60s and early 70s, you have lost much of your family and at least some of your friends. You may be widowed. You may not be interested in socializing as much as in the past because your interests have changed. Add that to the likelihood that your friends interests have also changed and there is loneliness.
Some of my interests have changed, but basically my core interests have remained the same. For example, I still love the same music and don’t really enjoy the music of recent generations. Aerosmith, a famous rock and roll band that began in the 1970s, is still going strong, and is still one of my favorite bands, now as well as when I was younger. Steven Tyler, the lead singer, is a talented musician who has lived a long and colorful life. If you’ve never heard Aerosmith and Steven Tyler, listen to his song “Dream On” and see what you think. It’s pretty indicative of the baby boomer generation and how we grew up. Conservative parents, more liberal friends, and lots and lots of what seemed then like innocent fun. For the most part, it was!
Little puppy dog, loking at the camera behing the wire fence, in a shelter adoption.
We named him Freddy. We didn’t know his name. I opened my back door on the morning of the fifth of July about seven years ago and he was humped up on the porch, as close to the door as he could get. We’d never seen him before. We had no idea where he came from. My husband and I went outside to check him out. He just looked at us and when he discovered we were kind, he stayed as close to us as he could.
We did everything we were supposed to do. We called the local animal shelter and reported him. We put up signs around the neighborhood. We called neighbors. All this time, Freddy wouldn’t leave our property. He laid in the garage on an old rug and wagged his tail every time he saw one of us.
A few years later, we were standing in our garage and the door was open. We saw what resembled a furry bullet running as fast as she could down our long driveway toward our garage. She ran inside and hid in a corner. We had never seen her before. A beautiful German Shepherd dog. It was storming outside and we assumed she got frightened and ran away from home. She made up with us easily. Just like with Freddy, we did everything we knew to do to find her owners. No luck.
About three days later, in the case of both dogs, the owners found us. Instead of thanking us for caring for their dogs while they were lost, they were angry. Angry because we didn’t magically know where the dogs belonged.
In the case of Freddy, he was a neighbor’s dog from about a mile away. The neighbor took him home and he came back. He kept coming back repeatedly. Finally, his owners chained him to a dog house in the summer heat and he couldn’t come back again. Six years later, Freddy appeared in our driveway again. He was old now and he wasn’t well. Again, he was taken away to his home.
The German Shepherd is an interesting story. Finally, through social media, we found her owners. Her owner came after her and we thought something was strange from the first. He wouldn’t park in our driveway. We walked out to his truck. The dog didn’t follow us. He started accusing us of stealing his dog. He was abusive and was obviously capable of violence. He called for the dog and she wouldn’t come to him. He kept calling and that beautiful dog crawled a few inches at a time on her belly. She crawled around him, around his truck, under his truck, always keeping a distance from him. Finally, he caught her, picked her up by her back legs, and threw her through the open door of his pickup truck. She crashed inside to the floorboard. I don’t know what happened to her, but we’ve heard she is locked in a storage shed most of the time.
Dogs are and can be neglected and abused in a variety of ways for many reasons. Hunting dogs, for example, are often hunted until they drop and a terrible problem exists with regard to their treatment and care. In the U.S., as our politics of hatred have ramped up, so has violence and abuse. Haters take their rage out on their children and defenseless animals. I find the situation in the U.S. to be almost intolerable.
Maybe you’re asking yourself by now where the animal cruelty authorities were in the case of Freddy and the German Shepherd. In our state in the U.S., we have almost no effective laws to protect defenseless animals. The animal control officer said he would check on them. We even talked to the Sheriff in the case of the German Shepherd. We never heard anything back from either party.
According to a 2024 study conducted by Forbes Magazine, over six million dogs are surrendered to animal shelters each year. About two-thirds of that number are adopted. The rest are euthanized. How many dogs need to be rescued who reside in abusive or neglectful homes? No one knows.
The pandemic didn’t help. People were isolated and lonely. They thought the solution was to adopt a pet. Dogs, in the U.S. are more popular than cats. Unfortunately, many of the people who adopted dogs during the pandemic didn’t consider what their situation would be after the pandemic. Would their remote jobs become onsite jobs again? Would they even have jobs? No one knew, for sure, that the economy would take a downturn and inflation would soar. The cost of caring for a pet skyrocketed and so did the number of people who surrendered their dogs to an animal shelter or just left them to fend for themselves.
After the dog we had for many passed away in September, 2023, we decided to rescue a dog. We ended up rescuing two dogs, both from horrible situations. Meet Sophie. A purebred German Shepherd who was found by a rescue group in a wire crate and tied to a fence post outside a festival site in the hot sun.
Sophie is somewhere between two and three years old. We only know part of her story. She was purchased by a couple, as a puppy, who it seems loved her. They divorced and she was passed from person to person for almost two years. It could have been a nightmare, rescuing a German Shepherd dog, but Sophie has a wonderful temperament. She came to us obedience trained and guard trained. She’s the perfect dog.
In the past, we have had Pembroke Welsh Corgis and we heard of one that needed rescue. Enter Hazel. She is a female and is now about 20 months old. Hazel was really neglected and has major health issues, but we will love her and take care of her. So many rescue dogs do have health issues. They also have mental and emotional issues and Hazel is a poster dog for all of these concerns.
Rescue dogs come with baggage. Once they trust you, which can take some time, they are truly your best friends. Instead of buying expensive purebred dogs from breeders, consider rescuing a dog who will become your best friend. There is so much need for good homes and compassionate, loving dog owners. Rescuing a dog is very gratifying even though it may require a little more work than buying an eight-week old puppy for thousands of dollars.
You don’t have to go to just the local animal shelters. Call breeders of whatever breed you are interested in. You can find a list on the American Kennel Club website. You might be able to find a breeder ready to retire a show or breeding dog that would fit your needs perfectly. Some of the dogs who are retired are sent straight to rescue after being used for years for show or breeding. They need all of us.
Good morning and welcome to my #weekendcoffeeshare #156! So glad to see so many of you. I have several kinds of brews waiting on you, so just help yourself. I am a tea drinker and don’t drink coffee, so there are a couple of nice teas as well. Grab a mug and have a seat and let’s catch up.
As many of you know, I am mostly retired. I find myself, just about every day, wondering how I ever found time to actually work. Even retired, it seems that almost every hour of the day is filled up with something. Most of it good. Some not as good and I’d rather not deal with that! Do any of you who are retired feel the same? That there isn’t enough time? There is so much left that I still want to do.
I have a lot of writing to do as well as reading. I’m trying to read all the classics along with some of the newer stuff. Some traveling, though not a lot, is on my mind too. There are still a few places I’d like to see, a little traveling that I have left to do. I would love to visit New Zealand. There are also only two European countries I haven’t seen. One is Switzerland and the other is Scotland. I especially want to go to the Scottish Highlands since one half of my DNA comes straight from there., Another fourth of my DNA comes from the Hebrides Islands off the west coast of Scotland. The last fourth is from Sweden and I have traveled there several times. I still have cousins in both Scotland and Sweden who I would love to meet in person. I don’t know if I’ll be able to travel to any of these places in the coming years, but I certainly hope so. Where would you like to go on your travels?
Scottish Highlands
Stockholm, Sweden
Isle of Lewis, Scotland
My ancestors came from each of these places.
A funny story. Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s mother emigrated from the Isle of Lewis, Scotland to America.
Do any of you engage in genealogical research when you aren’t writing? I have worked on my genealogy off and on since I was 18 years old. I’m interested in exploring so many of my family lines. I’ve developed family trees for my paternal grandfather’s line (Sweden) and my maternal grandfather’s line (Scotland). My maternal grandfather’s ancestors were in America before the Revolutionary War that split the U.S. from Great Britain.
My paternal grandfather’s family were new immigrants in the early 20th century, immigrating from Sweden to the state of Michigan in the U.S.; northern Michigan to be precise.
Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park in the Upper Peninsula of MIchigan, US.
Other than dreaming about traveling and writing, my week has been pretty quiet. Unfortunately, I’m dealing with some illness in my family and am consumed with concern and involvement with that. It’s one of the disturbing things about getting older. Family and friends start to get sick.
If you are ever curious about the state of Kentucky in the U.S., I have a book for you. One of the things Kentucky is known for is thoroughbred horse breeding and racing. We are only a few miles from the Bluegrass region of Kentucky where the limestone in the ground turns the grass blue in the spring. It is particularly good for horses. The horse industry has thrived here since the 1700s. I am reading a wonderful book depicting the history of the horse industry in Kentucky set in a wonderful story. The book is called “Horse” by Geraldine Brooks. I highly recommend it. What are you reading?
Thank you for joining my #weekendcoffeeshare. It’s been wonderful to see and spend time with all of you. Have a great upcoming week!
It’s Memorial Day weekend and that’s an important holiday in the U.S. Memorial Day, also called Decoration Day in some areas, is a holiday that honors those soldiers lost to war. It’s been expanded in our consciousness to honor all of our deceased love ones. In the region of the U.S. where I have lived most of my life, it’s a special holiday. I live in the state of Kentucky in the U.S. which is located in the mid-southeastern region of the country. The area of the state in which I live is part of a larger region, the region of Appalachia. Here, Memorial Day falls on a weekend when families reunite, have large meals together and decorate the graves of their deceased loved ones with flowers. Veteran’s graves are also decorated with the U.S. flag. Across Appalachia, Memorial Day is most often called Decoration Day.
When I was growing up, and even now, the family would congregate where most of the relatives were buried. In my case, when I was a child, that was near my grandparent’s home deep in the heart of Appalachia and about 55 miles from where I live now. Every individual family within the extended family would bring beautiful flowers and flags to decorate each grave. Often, that would involve going to three or four cemeteries.
Memorial Day at the cemetery was also a social occasion. Families who seldom saw each other would have a chance to talk and catch up while decorating the graves.
During Memorial Day, everyone would go to my grandmother’s house for a large meal and a visit with each other afterward. It was one of the most important family holidays of the year.
We still honor our lost loved ones in Appalachia in much the same way. Families are smaller. There are fewer large family meals. Instead of meals in grandma’s kitchen, they are often prepared on the grill where each individual family lives. You will still find people hunting flowers a few days before the Memorial Day weekend to decorate gravesites. They still enjoy visiting with family and friends in and around the cemeteries and some people travel in order to decorate the graves.
No matter what country we are in, or its traditions, let’s all celebrate our war dead this weekend and every weekend.
If we were having coffee this weekend, I would ask you to please come in, sit and make yourself comfortable, and before you sit down, please choose the beverage of your choice off my coffee bar. There are several types of coffee, cocoa and my favorite, a wonderful cinnamon tea.
I’d like to wish everyone hello and good wishes and thank you for joining my weekly coffee share this week. I’ve been away and haven’t participated in the weeklycoffeeshare for a long time now, but I’m glad to be back. I see many familiar faces here and some new ones. I’m looking forward to getting re-acquainted and reading everyone’s contribution this week!
Since I was last here, I took a job(s) writing freelance (and contract) for several firms including The New York Times, DotDash Meredith and Smart Asset. That was several years ago now and I had a wonderful freelance writing career. It was really an encore career since I had been a college professor for 27 years and had retired. All good things must come to an end, however, and I retired permanently in March 2022, However, just because I retired from writing commercially, doesn’t mean that I don’t want to write, so here I am back at my roots, blogging on WordPress. I’m so happy to be back and happy to see all of you!
My next venture may be a book or two. Something I have in my head that’s fiction and another non-fiction book on the area in the U.S. in which I live, Appalachia. You’ll probably hear a lot about Appalachia from me. I’m not ready to reveal all the details yet, but perhaps soon! I found out yesterday that I may have a health challenge to contend with that joins another health challenge that I’ve dealt with for years. Aren’t the Golden Years wonderful!?
I hope to spend a lot of time in the flower gardens here at my home in Kentucky, USA this summer. It was an oddly cool spring and even at the end of May, we’re having some cool weather. I’m ready for some heat and humidity! Well, maybe just heat! Summer is welcome this year after a long fall and winter of COVID-19 and the isolation that comes with it. I hope all of you have done well during the pandemic.
I also want to spend as much time with my little dog, Clara, as possible. Clara, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, is an attention hog so I’m trying to oblige her this summer. She’s 10 years old which is a pretty long life for a Cavalier.
Thank you so much for stopping by my weeklycoffeeshare today. I’ll share more and more with you as time goes on including pictures! For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Memorial Day weekend!
Hi everyone! This is a very old Appalachian recipe, handed down from my great-grandmother to my grandmother and finally to my precious Aunt Red, the lady I wrote about in the blog post, The Most Elegant Lady. It is so old that the writing is extremely faded on the paper I have. I have to get it typed up before it completely fades away! Since it is fall apple season, I thought it was time to share this with all of you!
Fall Apple Cake
*This cake was originally supposed to be made with Winesap apples. Winesap apples are very hard to find now. Granny Smith apples are the best substitute.
2 cups sugar
2 cups vegetable oil – Wesson oil or other oil
Mix sugar into vegetable oil
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsps cloves
1/2 tsps cinnamon
1 tsps salt
1 tsps baking soda
3 cups finely chopped apples (Winesap or Granny Smith)
Optional: 1 cup finely chopped nuts or 1 cup raisins
Good morning! Welcome to my #weekendcoffeeshare! Grab a cup of coffee or tea off the kitchen island. I believe there is also decaf of both there and some green tea. Help yourself to whatever your pleasure is and join me in my study.
I hope all of you are well and happy and getting along well with your writing projects. I’m proceeding with my novella and have had time to do some writing this week. I am working on the characters right now, fleshing them out, making them interesting. Do you use Scrivener? I am using it for my character studies as it seems really convenient for that, but I use Microsoft Word for my actual manuscript. This is the first time I’ve used Scrivener, so I’ll let you know how that goes. Do any of you have experience with that program?
I’ve also spent the week following the story about the environmental devastation in Florida. If you’re in the U.S., I’m sure you’ve heard about it. If you’re not, you may not. In short, the Gulf Coast of the Florida peninsula is being devastated by chemical runoff from the sugar cane operation around Lake Okachoobee. There was already a red tide on the Gulf Coast. Now, the runoff has caused a blue-green algae bloom that has caused a massive fish kill. Hundreds of sea turtles have been killed, which breaks my heart. Thousands of fish. This will impact the people of the Gulf Coast and their jobs for years to come.
We have a small place in Florida right in the middle of this runoff. We don’t think we can even go back except to get our belongings. Even then, it will be dangerous to our health. Tourism will be dead in Florida this coming winter which will destroy their economy. It’s very sad and unnecessary. I’m a bit of a political activist, so I’ve been involved in this during the week. A picture of the blue-green algae slime that is so toxic is below this post.
I’m also involved in trying to tame my wild puppy, Tucker! He’s so sweet, but completely out of hand at 5.5 months old. I’ve had five corgis in my life, but never a corgi with his temperament. I told my husband that his needs are above my pay grade! Together with his breeder, we’re trying to find a professional trainer for him. Not only will that be good for me, it will be good for Tucker. I have to be trained as well. I have to learn the secrets to controlling him and he has to learn to control himself. Herding dogs, like Tucker, are alphas by nature. After he’s trained, I want to involve him in something fun for him. I’m going to enter him in herding trials and let him do what comes naturally to him.
Environmental issues and character studies for my novella have been at the top of my list this week, along with dog training, of course. What have you been doing this week?
*Thanks to eclecticali for hosting #weekendcoffeeshare!
Hello everyone! I’d like to invite you to have coffee with me after dinner tonight. I’m running late this weekend, but after dinner coffee might be fun for a change. I appreciate all of you attending my #weekendcoffeeshare tonight! There is a selection of coffee on the bar. There is also tea such as Earl Grey and Paris. Please help yourself.
if we were having coffee, I would tell you that I’ve had a difficult week, so please forgive me if I’m not my usual self. One of my former classmates and forever friends passed away and his visitation and services were this week. He was a special, unique man and he will be greatly missed by many. I had known him since we started kindergarten together at four years old and we then went through twelve years of school together. I’m sad tonight.
I’m having some behavioral issues with my five-month old puppy. It is disturbing and upsetting, having never dealt with such issues before with a puppy. I’m hoping, as he gets older, they will resolve themselves, but I’m working with him a great deal now.
I have embarked on a huge job. I am going through all my photos and the photos from my mother. I’m going to try to get the photos of other family members back to them and the photos of my own family in some semblance of order. I know, I know. It’s a big job, but it’s time to do it. It won’t be done overnight, I assure you!
I’ve done a good bit of writing this week. Sometimes, when life gets hard, I escape into my writing. That’s the story of this week.
A brief line from one of my favorite poems. I wish I could live like this:
”I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief”
—from “The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
I’d love to hear about your week!
Thanks to eclecticali for hosting #weekendcoffeeshare.
The Write Scribe 